A community event held in Toronto’s Canoe Landing Park celebrating the life of an eight-year-old boy killed by a stray bullet in 2025 wasn’t a traditional memorial but a way of turning his family’s pain into purpose, said his mother.
Holly Roy hoped that the lively event, with music, dancing, heartfelt speeches, and even mascots from Toronto’s professional sports teams, would reflect who her son JahVai was as he lived, not as he died.
“What I wanted to have today was something that reflected my son. He was very athletic, full of energy, compassionate,” Roy said in an interview as the event got under way on Saturday.
JahVai was shot and killed by a stray bullet as he slept in his mother’s bed in the summer of 2025 inside their apartment at 15 Martha Eaton Way, near Trethewey Drive.
“My entire world changed that day,” Roy said with emotion at the podium in front of dozens of attendees.
“But I made the decision I would not allow the violence that took my son’s life to define the life he lived. And I would not allow anger to consume the love that he leaves behind,” she said.
The community around that apartment was horrified and held several gatherings and vigils. Police later arrested three people, all minors.
That year, the mayor’s Youth Safety Task Force launched a summer safety plan, which invested $5 million in job training, arts programs, and mental health supports.
Toronto’s firearm discharges and shootings had been on a decline from a high of 492 in 2019 to 344 in 2023 but spiked in 2024 to a total of 462, according to police data. The following year, they were at a total of 263.
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At the event on Saturday, Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow spoke to the crowd, and then, with Roy, released two doves into the air.
Speaking later to reporters, Chow said her policy of funding programs for young people had been successful in diverting some of them away from violence.
“Gun violence for young people has dropped by 40 per cent. But one grieving mother is too many. Which is why we need to keep moving forwards,” she said.
CTV News reached out to her rival, Brad Bradford, whose campaign said in an email, “The Mayor can’t point to one number and tell residents the job is done.”
“For too many people, Toronto has become unsafe and downright dangerous. That isn’t what a city living up to its full potential looks like, and we can’t have a mayor who keeps asking Torontonians to settle for the status quo,” the statement said, reiterating Bradford’s promise to hire 1,000 more frontline police officers.
The complex where JahVai was shot is still troubled. This summer, a police raid related to the shootings at the U.S. consulate sparked a gunfight that resulted in the death of one officer.
Roy hasn’t been back there, though she has a message for troubled kids.
“I would just tell them that you’re so very loved. And there’s safe spaces out there. There’s resources, there’s mentors. You have a whole community,” she said.
Roy wrote a letter to the Ontario legislature’s justice committee last week, said MPP Chris Glover, who read sections of it out from the podium.
In the letter, Roy asked the committee members to focus on programs that could divert young people away from a life of crime.
“No program, policy or investment will bring JahVai back to me. But I refuse to accept that other mothers should have to experience what I have experienced before we decide prevention deserves the same urgency as enforcement,” she said.
